About Jacopo Bassano

Considered one of the leading Venetian painters alongside Tintoretto, Titian, and Veronese, Jacopo Bassano was a Renaissance master who incorporated everyday scenery into his religious paintings. Born Jacopo dal Ponte, he was called Bassano for the Northern Italian town in which he worked. During the 1530s, he painted in the conventional Renaissance style, portraying Biblical scenes of humble domestic settings that his audience could recognize, a characteristic that became his work’s hallmark. In the 1540s and ’50s, Bassano worked in a richly colored mannerist style that developed into expressive compositions that played with lighting conditions. His nocturnal scenes, in particular, were very popular, influencing El Greco and anticipating the Baroque period. His later work also demonstrates a heightened attention to landscape and fauna, which he rendered in fastidious naturalist detail.